The white river didn't feel like water. It felt like falling into a vat of battery acid that could think.
Rin hit the surface and went under, the liquid light filling his nose and mouth. It didn't drown him in the biological sense; it tried to overwrite him. His skin burned as the raw mana attempted to force its way into his pores, overloading his circuits with pure, unfiltered data.
[System Alert: Environmental Hazard]
[Mana Toxicity: Critical]
[Assimilation: 4%]
'Not today.'
Rin pulsed the gray energy. He didn't push it out; he coated himself in it, a second skin of static and void. The white liquid hissed against the gray barrier, repelled by the corruption. The burning stopped, replaced by the familiar, numbing buzz of the glitch.
He opened his eyes.
The river was bright, blindingly so. He couldn't see the bottom, just endless streams of flowing code-light. Beside him, a heavy shape sank past.
Leo. The Aegis suit was too dense to swim.
